Feral cats, black rats and red foxes are introduced predators in Australia and have contributed to the extinction of many mammal and bird species. Collaborative projects with Bush Heritage Australia, Earthwatch and DBCA have investigated feral cats and red foxes. Tim Doherty started his PhD on feral cats at Charles Darwin Reserve (Bush Heritage Australia) in 2012 and finished in 2015. He looked at feral cat habitat use, diet and their response to poison baiting, as well as prey species habitat use and foraging behaviour. Tim’s work focussed on the impact of feral cats at the local, continental and global scales. You can find out more about Tim’s research here. Michael Main undertook a master’s project looking at the spatial ecology of urban red foxes in Kings Park and Bold Park in Perth. Work in the Pacific and with Perth Zoo has been investigating black rat impacts on wildlife, detection and monitoring.

Key publications:

• Main, M.,Davis, R.A., Blake, D., Mills, H. and Doherty, T.S. (2020). Human impact overrides bioclimatic drivers of red fox home range size globally. Diversity and Distributions. Accepted.
• Radley, P., Davis, R.A. and Doherty, T. (2020). Impacts of Invasive Rats And Tourism On A Threatened Island Bird: the Palau Micronesian Scrubfowl. Bird Conservation International. Firstview.
• Doherty, T.S., Dickman, C.R., Nimmo, D.G. and Ritchie, E.G. (2015) Multiple threats, or multiplying the threats? Interactions between invasive predators and other ecological disturbances. Biological Conservation, 190:60-68.
• Doherty, T.S. (2015) Dietary overlap between sympatric dingoes and feral cats at a semi-arid rangeland site in Western Australia. Australian Mammalogy http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/AM14038
• Doherty, T.S.  and Algar, D. (2015) Response of feral cats to a track-based baiting programme using Eradicat baits. Ecological Management & Restoration 16:124-130.
• Doherty, T.S., Davis, R.A., van Etten, E.J.B., Algar, D., Collier, N., Dickman, C.R., Edwards, G., Masters, P., Palmer, R. and Robinson, S. (2015). A continental-scale analysis of feral cat diet in Australia. Journal of Biogeography, 42:964-975.
• Doherty, T.S., Bengsen, A., Davis, R.A. (2014). A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management. Wildlife Research, 41: 435-446.